In a bid to win the fight against cervical cancer, Community of St Egidio through Disease Relief through Excellent and Advanced Means (DREAM) has donated a cryotherapy machine and gas cylinder to Phalombe district health office.
The handover which was done by DREAM’s country director, Lawrence Alumando, took place on Wednesday at Phalombe health centre.
Speaking after donating the machine, Alumando said they thought of donating the gadget as one way of helping Malawi government in improving health services in the country.
“Our aim is to make sure that government health services are improving, we have been in this district for some years and we want to make a difference together,” said the country director.
He added that DREAM is hoping that the fight against the cervical cancer will be successful in the district with the coming of the machine as the Phalombe now has two of them.
Phalombe district health officer Ketwin Kondowe commended the organisation for all the support it has been providing to the district.
“We appreciate a lot on financial and technical support that you have been giving us from the time we had the cervical cancer campaign up to date. Women are now seeking services closer to their homes.
“As Phalombe we had one cryotherapy machine and the coming of this one means we have two of them, this will really help the district,” said Kondowe.
During the event, cervical cancer coordinator for the district Ella Mkandawire revealed that many women have been reached since DREAM conducted the campaign in November last year.
However, she said, they are currently meeting a lot of challenges which may hurt the progress that has been made.
“We have a lot of problems we are facing such as lack of materials like vinegar. We are currently providing the services in 11 facilities across the district,” Mkandawire said.
Meanwhile, DREAM has promised that it will train more nurses on issues of cervical cancer and it will also conduct mass screening exercise for the disease this year again in the district.
Cryotherapy machine is used to destroy different number of types of cancer cells and it uses extreme cold.
In Phalombe, DREAM is implementing the project with funding from Norwegian Church Aid.
